Week 35 (yep, Sweden uses week numbers instead of dates) is always one of the busiest of my year.

The Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag, has intensive courses in English for Riksdag officials and Members of Parliament. Week 33 and 34 are in the UK (Canterbury and London), and week 35 is in Stockholm. We usually have 5 or 6 groups of students, with two teachers per group. I do the levels testing, grouping, coordination with teachers, material creation and printing, and course design, meals, and venue coordination, as well as teaching two of the groups. The course runs from 9am to 4pm with handovers between teachers done before 9, during lunch and after 4.

I love doing it but there are always glitches during the week (double-bookings of venues, access problems, technological failure, special meal requirements etc), much running between venues, and very long days. Each night last week my leaden feet dragged themselves up the hill (126 stairs) to my apartment, where hungry cats, household chores and administration waited for me.

On Wednesday though, I came home to a surprise. There was a UPS envelope sticking out of my letter box. I had no idea what it was because I was not expecting anything.

I was flabbergasted when I opened the parcel and found a Galen leather box inside, containing one of the new products for me to try! It was so well-timed and I was thrilled!!!! What a wonderful surprise!

As regular readers know, I have chosen to not monetise my blog. I want it to remain a hobby and I want to be able to write what I like. Of the products I feature, 98% I bought at full price. I do sometimes receive thoughtful gifts from my wonderful readers, review copies from, and small discounts, but I make this clear in the relevant blog posts. I never request discounts or review copies – ever.

Galen Leather previously sent me 2 TN covers to review after seeing an article I had written about their site, and I love them both. See them here.

Below is the beauty I received last week. After the first set of photographs there is a description and some more photographs, this time from the Galen Leather website.

This is a brown leather Hobonichi Weeks/TN/wallet insert combination in light brown. I love the fact that it has a zipper pocket. This is so handy for holding coins, keys, supermarket tokens, etc.

You can use it as a:

standalone wallet with a Hobonichi weeks or TN Standard size slipped into in one or both slip pockets

wallet insert, slipped under a TN cover elastic

travel wallet – it fits passports, boarding passes etc. I really like boarding pass holders as mine always get lost or crumpled in the stress of carrying different bags and having to show it all the time at airports.

I really like that you can use it either inside a traveler’s notebook cover, or by itself. You can find it on the website here, and read reviews about it on the same page.

The left panel features 4 credit card size pockets, one pocket size notebook long pocket, one small separator and wide pocket useful for small accessories, and one large pocket which is great for keeping your cash, receipt or a mobile phone (iPhone 7 plus fits easily).

We use a special pen loop for this wallet.The loop made from 60% leather and 40% hidden elastic, so the loop fits any pen or pencil.

The right panel comes with a leather pocket with a sturdy YKK zipper and another hidden pocket underneath the leather pocket.

I just wanted to thank Galen Leather for the chance to review this product. I am going to be using it as a standalone wallet because I am in A5 Hobonichi at the moment. I will report back after a couple of weeks.

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